SNS OFFICIAL ON CENSUS RESULTS

ZAGREB, June 20 (Hina) - The Croatian government must understand its obligation and explain why Serbs left Croatia, and justly approach the process of solving the problem of the Serb minority, the president of the Serb People's Party (SNS), Milan Djukic, said on Thursday commenting on the official results of the 2001 census, according to which there are 4.5 percent of Serbs in Croatia while in 1991, the number amounted to over 12 percent. #L# "According to our data, there are around nine percent of Serbs in Croatia, but in spite of this fact we do not advocate an audit of the census, nor do we plan to complain to the international community. We advocate open dialogue between the government and representatives of minorities to discuss the reasons why Serbs fled Croatia," Djukic said. "Should we fail to answer where 400,000 Serbs disappeared over the past ten years through dialogue, then the conclusion must be that ethnocide was conducted in Croatia," Djukic said. Because of this, it needs to be established who is responsible for Serbs leaving, namely, to what extent political agreements between Zagreb and Belgrade should be held responsible. "To accuse Croatian Serbs of being the only ones to blame for the exodus from Croatia, after the operations of Flash and Storm, would mean that the Croatian government was losing credibility," the SNS president said. He said that the solving of "the Serb issue" was not possible without "cantonisation or regionalisation" of parts of the former so-called Krajina and the Danube River region, but exclusively by realising an autonomy of local self-government. According to him, this would not be a threat to the Croatian State, but it would help Serbs to integrate with the society. (hina) it sb